I happen to be blessed by having a very close friend who makes for me a great travelling companion. We haven't travelled together to faraway and exotic places, per se, but we have travelled together here in the United States quite a bit.
Our best travelling companions aren't always family for sure. It could be that a good travel buddy may be found in a friend, and not even a best friend but at least a good friend with whom we are comfortable spending lots of time.
Yet what makes for a great travel companion? I suggest three things to look for between yourself and your travel companion. They are:
- Likability
- Compatibility
- Familiarity
Likability and compatibility are the "must havs." There also needs to be a fairly high degree of familiarity between yourself and your travel companion, meaning you need to know each other well and not have just met and liking each other based upon mere first impressions. There's no better way to test a friendship's longevity than to travel with that someone. If the two of you survive a even a week's worth of travelling around together... working out itineraries that suit the both of you, being patient with each other's known quirks like getting up early vs. sleeping in, and OMG sharing bathrooms(!) AND at the end of the holiday you are closer friends than you were before the trip, cheerful and upbeat for the experience, then you've found a great travel companion in each other.
Why must there be all three things? Well, there are people with whom we perhaps might be compatible, say if you don't smoke and the other person doesn't either. And yet if they have other aspects to their personality that either annoy or disturb you, which by default reduces their attractiveness to you in the context of being with them, you may end up at somepoint during the trip wanting to ring their neck. I guess one could argue that compatibility implies likability but I don't really think it does.
Likability is the driving force underlying attraction. I have certainly liked some people, and yet I don't necessarily think I could spend a week's time under the same roof with them. Hence, compatibility means you can comfortably spend lots of time with someone, sharing space without excess conflict. It is having these two things in someone, likability and compatibility, that makes them a good travel companion for you. However, I think you have to know a person quite well in order to take the travel experience to the next level, to feel free to be who you really are with them as you carve out those new paths to walk along together.
Sure these are simple thoughts arrived at with common sense, and yet I've witnessed many a holiday ruined by having any one of these three elements missing!
One could argue that such makes a case for travelling solo, and it isn't that solitary travel cannot be enjoyed. There is a time and place for it, especially when a person needs solitude to sort out their interior state. I just think many people tend to delight in having that great companion at their side on their journey.
May you be as fortunate as I am in finding yours.
Sofie
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